Colts vs. 49ers postgame grades: Offense

The Colts played the 49ers yesterday in their third preseason game. How did the offense do in their regular season dress rehearsal?

The offense needed to show that they could do things on a consistent basis. Starting units need to figure out a way to knock off all of the rust and play like they would in the regular season. With that in mind, how well did the different offensive units play yesterday?

Andrew Luck played his best game of the preseason. He went 8-10 and threw a beautiful touchdown pass to Eric Ebron. He did a good job moving around the pocket and was very accurate with the football. That is what he needed to show Colts fans in his dress rehearsal. Jacoby Brissett and Philip Walker played decent too, but Luck was the star of the unit.

The Colts continue to struggle to run the ball. That might be because Marlon Mack is still out with an injury, but the backs weren’t able to get anything going, only rushing for a combined 41 yards. This is an area that needs cleaned up quickly.

Austin Howard was the latest tackle to have issues for the Colts. He got turned around on one play and allowed Luck to get sacked. Denzelle Goode hurt his knee as well, so the right tackle position is a complete mess right now. Hopefully Anthony Castonzo is ready for week one because the tackles have been very poor in the preseason.

The wide receivers played a little better yesterday. T.Y. Hilton made an appearance and had a couple of nice catches, as did Ryan Grant. The whole unit did have some issues getting open consistently, but they still played fine overall.

Eric Ebron finally showed up, and he played very well. He caught Andrew Luck’s touchdown pass and had five catches overall. Erik Swoope played well too, but Ebron stole the show for the unit. If he plays like that all season, the offense could be dangerous.

The Colts play their last preseason game Thursday night against the Bengals, who they also play week one of the regular season.